“More than half of a battle’s decided in the planning done well before the actual fighting.” - Saying attributed to Liang Si-Zhu, Famed Tactician of the Huan Confederacy, circa 92-134 VA.

Later that night, after a hearty dinner to celebrate the day’s quick victory, Reinhardt gathered up his lieutenants and led them towards Nestor’s tent. There they found the young nobleman already awaiting them, still without any guards other than his wife and two knights stationed outside. None of those present blinked an eye at the arrival of the mercenaries, so Reinhardt thought that they must have been informed beforehand.

“Welcome, everyone. I hope you’ll excuse the lacking… size of this place,” said Nestor with a friendly gesture after the mercenaries crammed themselves into his tent. Despite the overall large size of the tent, it barely fit all of them inside there, and there was barely any free space between where Nestor and Griselda was and the throng of mercenaries pressed shoulder to shoulder.

Mischka even sat on the ground, cross-legged, and allowed a couple others to sit and lean against her to save up room since it would have been difficult to fit her any other way. Erycea and Elfriede sat on the therian matron’s haunches and leaned against her coarse fur, while Egil sat on her shoulder like an oversized parrot so he could get a proper vantage point to look at and listen to the talk.

“It is fine, Your Grace,” said Reinhardt with a nod. He stood at the forefront of the gathering, with all his officers present and accounted for. Lars stood on his left while Hannah - now the leader of the Company’s fledgling aerial scout platoon - fidgeted as she tried to fold her large wings as compactly as possible on his other side. “So how can we be of service?”

“I presume you have studied the map of the Duchy of Kolitschei before this,” stated the young nobleman with certainty in his voice, which Reinhardt affirmed with a nod of his head. “Then you would undoubtedly be familiar that between Fort Ivola and the city of Kolitschei itself, there would be little to hinder our march, other than fertile farmlands.”

“I am aware of it, Your Grace,” Reinhardt replied simply.

“Good. What I commanded today on Fort Ivola is not just something done to deal with this fort. It is something I did to set an example for the duchy to consider,” explained Nestor as he gesticulated with his hands to make his point. “If you were the Duke of Kolitschei, Captain, with almost the entirety of the wealthiest and most privileged of your subjects in your town, would you risk a siege when the enemy has just burnt down your previous fortification to the ground?”

“I would have attempted to stop such an opponent from reaching the city if at all possible-,” said Reinhardt in answer before the meaning of the young Duke’s words clicked inside his mind. Lars to his side also nodded thoughtfully around the same time. “You burned down the fort to lure the enemy into a field battle rather than a lengthy siege, did you not, Your Grace?”

“That is so. I am glad you caught on quickly,” replied Nestor with a satisfied and genuine smile on his face. “Tell me captain, have you heard of the Warforged?”

“I believe I have heard some tales and stories about them, but nothing too detailed. Elite soldiers from Kolitschei of some sort? I believe they were elite heavy infantrymen?”

“All correct, and I’m not surprised that there haven’t been many rumors about them since the last time the Warforged were deployed in full strength was in my grandfather’s generation,” said Nestor with a nod. “The Warforged are slave soldiers, Captain. People born into slavery who were raised from birth to be the most loyal and fearless soldiers there could be. If rumors were to be believed, they viewed it as the highest honor to be chosen as a Warforged for those not born into a Warforged lineage, and an equally great one to die in the service to their masters.”

“So, highly motivated, likely disciplined and skilled warriors who are unlikely to rout easily. Any details on how they fight?” Reinhardt asked as he went for the bits he considered more relevant to him,

“They were usually deployed as heavy line infantry, formations of ten shieldbearers who carried large tower shields covering forty or so pikemen with far longer pikes than normal. On top of that they also had a few elite swordsmen interspersed in their midst who either tackled those who managed to close in beneath the pikes or to disrupt the enemy formation offensively,” replied the young Duke. “To my knowledge, Kolitschei likely had enough of them to form dozens of such formations.”

“And where do we come in on this?”

“Well, Captain Edelstein, five years ago when Gris returned from Fort Kazka, she regaled me with the tale of your Company’s successful charge deep into the enemy lines to decapitate their command staff,” Nestor said as he glanced towards his wife beside him, who returned a nod when she noticed. “I would like you and yours to do something similar to that, should you be amenable.”

“That depends entirely on what you meant by something similar, Your Grace,” replied Reinhardt conservatively at the notion.

“Your Company seemed well-practiced in charging through enemy formations. I would like for you to pierce through the enemy formation from the flank, then take a turn and harry their frontlines from the rear,” said Nestor openly. “Of course, this is a dangerous task, so for that I am willing to offer the same deal Andrea did back then. Quadruple the payment and hazard fees, along with first dibs on salvaged equipment.”

“You have my interest, Your Grace, but I would like to know more details about what you have in mind specifically,” said Reinhardt tentatively to the offer. “For example, I doubt you intend to send just my company against the enemy’s flanks. We are confident in our prowess and can likely hold out for a while, but we would be overwhelmed before too long without any supporting troops.”

“Of course, Captain. I’ll take that as a tentative agreement for the time being and explain what I have in mind.”